


I Don't Want To Go

by CadomirBane



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Execution, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 10:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8283343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadomirBane/pseuds/CadomirBane
Summary: Sooner or later, every bounty hunter has to pay the price for their crimes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by the song "Renegade" by Styx. I cried my eyes out when I realized it fit Bane so here you go, cry with me.

A sliver of light sliced the cell wall.The door slowly opened to the side with a faint whirr.That unmistakable face—white, emotionless, and a black T visor—looked down at him.

He knew what words the clone would say already.

“It’s time.”

Bane swallowed the dry ache in his throat as he sat up on his cot, then held out his wrists for the clone.In seconds both his wrists and ankles were cuffed and locked in place.There was an ache in his back as he was pulled up to stand and began his stiff shuffle out of the cell.

Needless to say, he did not sleep at all last night.As if he could have if he wanted to.Instead he stared up at the ceiling and wondered why he could not shed a single tear.Was it worth crying about?Was there anything to grieve?

The jig was up.His name would be on every headline within the hour.There had always been two outcomes to his way of life, and this was what the stars decided to bring him.Either the job got you killed or the law did.That was how it always happened for people like him.Bounty hunters, wanted men, the outlaws of the galaxy.Of course, sometimes Bane had wondered if he would ever end up in the place when he was the one pulling the trigger.

A clone on either side of him, rifles poking the small of his back, escorted him down the long hall, then up a flight of stairs.As they entered the Execution Chamber, a low hush rang over the crowd.Seemed that the Chancellor had funded for more seating in the Chamber in the past few years.At least four hundred were here, Bane estimated, from a rough glance around him.A good number were senators and public officials, who had to be present for legal obligations.But the public—wanting a good look at the spectacle—filled the majority of the seats as well. A familiar Jedi here and there too, and the audience was complete.Bane walked down the center aisle.The only sound in the large room was his chains rattling and dragging against the floor.He didn’t care.

The President of the Senate had grinned like a schoolboy when he gave out the sentence three weeks ago.Today, he stood at the box behind the platform in the center of the room, where Bane saw the distance black oval shape against the vertical line.His instrument of death.Not a blaster or a blade…just the simple, ancient, ugly hangman’s noose.It taunted him, made him stop walking for a moment.He had hoped fear wouldn’t strike at him in his last moments, but he was wrong.Even now, not a single tear could be shed.

Ten years ago, Bane would have made a smile for the holocamera worthy of a magazine cover.But he couldn’t anymore.Too much pride had been scourged out of him, leaving a raw emptiness ready for the pain to end.

No more killing.No more stealing.No more hate or hunger.Soon all of it would be just a memory and he would only have the fate of the stars.

The clones pushed him up the steps.He was placed to stand behind the noose.Bane bit his bottom lip and looked at the ground, refusing to show the crowd any sort of remorse.They didn’t deserve the satisfaction.Much less any pity for him.One by one, his crimes—murder, kidnapping, theft, and terrorism, to name a few—were listed off by the President of the Senate, and Bane remained frozen as a statue.The audience made varied expressions of anger, disgust, and contempt for the condemned.

Above all, Bane did not dare let his mind drift to the regrets.The way his life could have been better.The way he could have been a good man.The choices he never had and the choices he missed.

He would not go there.If he did, he would break down in front of everyone, and that could _not_ happen.Cad Bane was determined to give the crowd what they wanted—a ruthless, evil criminal who could not care less if he lived or died.

His chains rattled as he straightened up.The words he had been waiting for echoed throughout the room.

“Do you have any last words, Bane?”

“Let’s get this done already,” he said with a shrug of indifference.

A clone stepped forward and began to put the noose around his neck, when a sudden voice shook Bane to the core.

“ _Wait_!”

_Oh, no…No, no…_

Not her.Anyone in the galaxy, but not _her_.

Bane’s heart sank and he looked down, for there, pushing through the crowd gathered at the base of the platform, he saw the same pair of large, red eyes glowing back at him.Her skin had always been a slightly greener shade, but they had the same jaw shape, the same lean limbs, although she was a few inches shorter.And she had fed him and held him and taught him to read and prayed every night that he would be a good man one day.

“Mama.You shouldn’t be here…” He whispered to her in Durese, so only she would understand.

“I had to, baby.”Her small, tired hands gripped the edge of the platform and she looked up at her condemned son, tears leaking out of her large eyes.Murmurs began to fill the room, but Bane didn’t even hear them.

He had told her not to come if this ever happened to him.He told her to take the money he had left and go somewhere safe and peaceful to spend the rest of her days.But that was one more thing they had in common—stubbornness and refusal to listen to good advice.

One of the clones was about to push his mother away, when she extended her arm as far up as she could.Bane reached down for her.For a few seconds, their hands locked in one final embrace.And they both hoped the last touch would say everything they had been denied the time to say.

And it said enough…it was too late to change things.Too late for redemption.Too late to even find the right words to say goodbye.

She whispered in their native tongue,

“I love you.I always will.”

He looked at her and, for the last but certainly not the first time, wished that such a loving person would have been blessed with a son who did not cause her all the pain he did for her.She had always deserved better than this.No one should watch as their only child is strung up.

He could have been better.

“Get on with it.”The President of the Senate spoke sternly.It was his turn to be indifferent.

Panic made her tighten her grip on his hand, but the clone pulled him away, wrenching Bane away from her.

“No!Please…!” she cried out in grief, reaching out for him again.

Bane struggled, but it was too late.A second clone grabbed him as well and forced him to step back away from her.

His mother saw what he had wanted to say written all over his face.She trembled, throat aching and heart pounding, but unable to look away.

_No…no.I don’t want to die.Tell them to let me try again.I’ll be better this time, I swear.I’ll be a good man._

Only now he felt the sting in his eyes and he shut them, unable to bear the sight of his mother in so much pain because of him.A desire in him stirred up to run to her and comfort her, show her that it did not have to end this way.But all of that was gone.He was about to leave.

_Mama?Mama!I don’t want to go._

_I don’t want to go…_

As the clone tightened the loose around his neck, Bane finally let himself cry.

* * *

Lani rubbed her forehead and sat up in bed.  Still shivering, she wrapped the bed sheet over her shoulders.  It was just past midnight on the Duro system.

_Just a nightmare.Just a nightmare._

In spite of herself, she had to see him.Just to be sure everything was okay.

Her house was small, but perfect for her.It inhabited one of the quiet residential neighborhoods of a Duro spaceport.A good place to spend her later years.She grew plants in every room and never threw anything out in case she might need it later, making the house organized but crowded.

The dim lights in the hall guided her to the living room.Her legs shook a little as she walked.

There he was, still curled up on the couch, sound asleep, face tucked in the inside of his arm.

_Oh, Cad, how sleeping that way is comfortable for you, I’ll never understand._

She found a blanket and draped it over her son where he slept.He had a new scar on his face since they were last able to visit each other.So he said, he was gaining a very infamous reputation as a bounty hunter.On the other hand, the Galactic Republic had a million credit reward for him, dead or alive.She knew why he was a wanted man but never brought it up when he visited.

Every night, she prayed that no matter where he was, her son Cad was as safe as she was.

At least tonight she could know that for sure.

As she tried to push the nightmare out of her head, she gently pulled off Cad’s boots and tugged a second blanket over his legs.His hat lay beside him.Same old hat he had had since he was a boy.

Maybe in the morning she could convince him to back out of this line of work.Maybe they could find a home somewhere far away and he could make an honest living again.Cad had had too many bad choices thrown at him but she refused to believe it was too late for him…and she didn’t care if that was just a mother’s natural bias.

After all, someone had to believe in him, if not himself.

**Author's Note:**

> I cheated my ass off with the extra scene at the end, I couldn't go through with ending it like that I JUST COULDN'T.


End file.
